This is our (Aisha and Matt's) travel blog. We'll be heading off on a trip around the world as of July 2009. Rather than emailing, calling and texting everyone with updates on our journey, we figured that we could satiate people's curiosity by providing updates via this blog.
Go ahead and explore the snippets of things we have experienced, and turn green with envy!
Waiting for Dreadlocks
Most of our time in Salvador was spent buying food and cooking it. We felt like cooking our own food for a while and Alpha Hostel´s kitchen was a great place to do so. It had a massive kitchen where guests could cook all day long and where our delicious Brazilian breakfast was made each morning.
Chickens
Porto do Galinhas (aka the Port of Chickens) is a domestic tourism hot spot and Fabi's dad was adamant we should see it. Everyone decided the weekend was the best time to go and we had it organised in a few hours; he quickly bargained some good accommodation and freed up his driver. The drive from Recife was pretty enough, but I was tense the whole time because of how fast the driver was driving.
Peruvian Stopovers
On our quest to walk the Inca Trail, we passed through both Lima and Cusco twice. The short times that we had in each place left us wanting more.
Hot Waters
We tried to bail on our plan to stay a night in Aguas Calientes after walking the Inca Trail. On the trail, we'd heard of lots of cool things to do back in Cusco, the town everyone uses as a stopover on their Inca adventures. On making an attempt to change our tickets, we were told that the early train was already full. So, it was Aguas Calientes, whether we liked it or not.
Almost Another Dead Woman
The Inca Trail is probably one of the most famous hikes in the world. Limits have been set on the number of people allowed on the trail and you can no longer hike without a qualified guide. New hiking regulations have been slowly introduced since 2001 to limit the impact of hikers and camping on the national park.
The Brazilian Consulate in Madrid
We spent four days in Madrid at Hostel One, a great hostel with fantastic, understanding staff. Unfortunately, every day was spent running around for the Brazilian Consulate. As Australians we had to apply for a Brazilian visa within 90 days of our scheduled arrival in Brazil. We decided to apply for this visa in Madrid after being advised to do so by the Brazilian Consulate in Prague.
Slovaks, Artists and Snow
Rather than stay in Madrid for our entire week in Spain, Aisha and I travelled down to Barcelona. We'd heard great things about the city, and Miša, my Slovak host sister, was living there. We traversed the 600 or so kilometers between Madrid and Barcelona in 2 hours, 20 minutes on a high speed AVE train.
Barcelona is all about the food, drink, art, and entertainment. The perfect place for Aisha and I.
Visiting Family
My cousin, Joel, lives in Tel Aviv with his partner and a cat. And since we would be in the neighbourhood, we had decided to squeeze in a three-day visit to Israel. While we were there we ate some great food; it was mostly cooked by Joel and Oded, but we cooked for them on the last night. We went out for an Israeli dinner on the first night and had excellent cake and coffee the next day.
Too Many Religions
Jerusalem, the holy city. Also home to countless religious bickerings, riots and wars. To Christians, Muslims and Jews the old city is an important haven of religious sites. The night before our final day in Israel, Joel, Aisha's cousin from Tel Aviv, sat us down and together we planned a day trip to this controversial place.
The "A"s of Jordan
"A" is for Amman and Aqaba. We visited both cities during our stay in Jordan, but we used them as bases for exploring the surrounding area, rather than destinations in themselves. Whilst we didn't get to know them intimately, the short time we were there gave us a taste of their vibe and what they have to offer.
